


Running amok

by ZevenKorian



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Exorcisms, Gen, Spirits
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2019-05-20 02:41:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14886090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZevenKorian/pseuds/ZevenKorian
Summary: In the first days of June, she would always say, “expect nothing but trouble and havoc in the hearts of the people once summertime starts, for it’s the time when the soul of the man is truly reborn and the energy from the deceased reaches its highest peak”. Nonetheless, the trouble and havoc in the hearts of the people was too much that year, which makes Nozomi wary about what may be happening in the city.Along with the rest of the members of the Paranormal detectives' club, Nozomi decides to investigate the city looking for the cause of such confusion and unsteadiness.





	Running amok

**Author's Note:**

> Based on Kamen Rider Kabuto's opening theme.

It was late in the night by the time they reached the outskirts of the mountain. The weather was bleak and the only light was coming from the moon’s gleam, rendering the long, thick clothes they were wearing useless. All they could think about was how hopeless they felt, unable to do anything but feel the anxiety and agitation building up in the hearts of their friends and families.

Was there any point in doing that late night expedition? Nozomi had crossed her heart when telling them it would all work out in the end for as long as they followed her instructions, but even her could have had unspoken doubts in the bottom of her heart. It was understandable, actually, for it’s hard to lose your cool when your beloved ones are on the line.

“Rin,” Nozomi said while turning her head around, “This is your last chance: take it or leave it.”

“She should stay,” Umi stated. “At this rate, she will never get used to this.”

“I’m fine!” Rin spluttered. “I will do this. I have to do this!” ‘Because I want to be strong’, she told herself.

The three of them kept swifting through the beaten track on their bikes until the road began to slope up. After leaving the bikes leaning on the nearest tree around, Nozomi took a little pouch from the basket of the bike and Umi tied a quiver to her body. Rin didn’t get anything, as she already had everything she needed in her handbag.

While climbing the mountain, they decided to form a queue. Umi would place herself ain the front to protect the other from incoming creatures and unwanted people hiding in the forest, with Rin in the middle and Nozomi in the back. Both Umi and her agreed they didn’t want to leave Rin exposed, as she was both the youngest and the worst suited to defend herself. Although it was a rather miffing situation for her, who didn’t want to be scolded for being too slow, she couldn’t deny she felt thankful for being so carefully looked after.

“But why are we doing this?” Rin asked in a barely audible voice. “Why not in the morning, a weekend day...?”

“You can’t catch a spirit in plain daylight; only the shimmer of the moon allows us to see ghosts,” Nozomi explained. “That’s why it’s totally safe to see a horror film at–”

Suddenly, Umi held up the queue. “Umi, what’s wrong?” Nozomi queried, but Umi just waved the hand to make them approach her.

Some meters away from her, there was a little girl in a white traditional kimono, standing on the road doing absolutely nothing. Despite she knew Rin was trying her best to appear calm and composed at the moment, Umi held her hand tightly and tried to keep on her side.

“What are you doing in a place like this at this time of the night, young girl?” Nozomi asked, keeping her distance. The girl just stared at them in total silence.

“Perhaps she’s deaf,” Umi reasonably argued.

“Perhaps she’s mute,” Rin said right afterwards.

Nozomi prowled towards the child, showing Umi a sign to prepare her bow just in case. But the exact moment Nozomi lowered her hand, the child tottered away from them.

“What should we do?” both Umi and Rin asked.

“Run after her!” Nozomi replied.

The race was bound to be won by the girls, with her long legs and the extra stamina their older age granted them. Nonetheless, just as Nozomi was about to catch the child, she tripped and fall over the child. This made her confirm what she already suspected.

“Umi, Rin – go after her!”

But Rin stood beside Nozomi to make sure she was okay, leaving Umi alone to chase the intangible child.

“But Nozomi, what are we going to do if the girl can’t be held!”

Nozomi rolled to lie on her back. Her eyes crossed, and a malicious smile was drawn across her face. “I never do owt for nowt,” she stated.

 

“Why are you running!?” Umi asked.

“Why are you going after me?” the girl replied.

“Why are you here, of all places!?”

Umi suddenly sat tight; it wasn’t a matter of sheer guts alone. She had to get the information in a subtler way, if she ever wanted any at all. ‘What would have Nozomi said at a time like this?’ she thought. It was hard to get into the mind of those who were always thinking about the afterworld and the Arcana, but she was confident it was the right approach to the problem.

“Is it possible… Hey! Are you lost or something?”

This made the girl stop, wordless. ‘So, is it?’ Umi thought.

Noticing the child didn’t move at all, as well as she didn’t speak at all, Umi ambled towards her. This may be it, this may be the way to get information, this may be… But in the last second, the child turned into a white crow and flew away. As fast as she could, Umi tried to aim, but it was useless – she wasn’t used to moving targets. Her best bet was to chase the bird, aimed for the top.

 

When Nozomi and Rin reached the top of the moutain, a shiver flushed across their bodies as they faced the uncanny sight of the mountain. There was a huge flock of birds flying around the apex as fast as they could, seemingly unable to decide whether to land on the trees of the top or to leave for the surrounding area. The trees themselves, on the other hand, were pinned into place, but that didn’t prevent them from twisting in pain and coiling around themselves, losing most of their leaves in the process.

No sooner Rin reached the top than she began to snivel and try to run towards the trees, but Nozomi hung her from the shirt and told her not to get closer to the trees.

“But Nozomi, looks at those poor trees! How can you be so cold-hearted!? They have to be in extreme pain...! Leave me…!”

Nozomi had a hard repressing the laugh. “Rin… Uhm… Trees don’t... Trees don’t feel pain...”

“But look at them! They’re suffering!”

“I, uhm… Look, ask Umi later. _But they’re ok._ ”

Walking away from Rin, Nozomi took the pouch of her pocket and spread its contents over the grass of the top, which in turn began to glisten with a faint blue hue. This made her notice Umi was already on the top, hopelessly aiming to the trees while clenching her bow.

“Umi!” Rin shouted while waving her hand. This made Umi retreat from her position, grateful to walk away from the spiral trees and the thrilled birds.

“Some updates on the child-bird?” Nozomi queried.

Umi sighed. “I’m awful at moving targets. What an useless archer.”

“Don’t say that – you’re such a dab hand!”

“Dab hands are helpless without dab eyes, you know?” Umi lamented.

Nozomi put a hand over her shoulder, portraying her best smile. “Let me be your eyes then, shall you?” Nozomi said.

In the meantime, Rin didn’t know what to do to help her friends, so she spread out a tablecloth over the grass and left some food in the middle. Her intention was treating them to celebrate victory – because of course, she thought, everything would work out as long as Umi and Nozomi were there.

Nozomi looked carefully at the trees, determined to find the place where child-bird –as she called the ghost– was hiding. She was convinced the spectre remained in the shape of a crow, since a child would have been easy to spot at that moment.

Very carefully, she took a pebble from the ground and threw it against the most twisted one. The bird followed suit.

“Umi, shoot!” Nozomi commanded.

But she missed. The bird promptly flew to their backs, landing on Rin’s picnic set, so neatly placed.

“No, stupid bird! Get out of here!!” Rin shouted, trying to grasp the bird as she forgot it was actually a ghost.

“Umi, shoot at 6 o’clock!” Nozomi shouted.

 

The sun was rising.

“Let me go! Let me go!” the child said, unable to release from Rin’s grip.

“No way, you have to fix the mess you made out of my picnic set!” Rin told her, pouting and frowning.

“You better tell me why you were preparing a picnic in such a dangerous situation!” Umi scolded her, anger and concern mixing in her voice.

“I wanted to celebrate our victory…!”

“Spare her, Umi,” Nozomi said. “As reckless as it was, it turned out to be the best bait we could have ever thought of.” She knelt before Rin and the girl. “We will release you once you’ve answered some of our questions.”

 

Her name was Hiyori Kasukabe. She had died in 1839, but somehow got stuck in this world as an errant spirit. She wasn’t aware of her ability to turn into a bird until many years later, when a group of vandal with some degree of knowledge in spiritism tried unsuccessfully to imprison her in a bottle to torture her. Since that point onward, she had been unable to trust any human who could see her.

“But trust me if I tell you I’m innocent, really!”

“Rin, please, release her.”

“Are you going to blindly trust her?” Umi protested.

“This girl is as clueless as we are,” Nozomi explained, “if not more. We won’t get any further information from her...” She sighed. “Life is never that easy, I suppose.”

Nozomi got a wide strip of paper from her pockets, on whose face the word _Enlightenment_ could be read. As she stuck it on the girl’s forehead, Rin could notice she was becoming intangible again. “This is a farewell,” she muttered.

“Thank you for understanding my situation...” and she vanished.

The journey back home was mostly silent. There was a shared feeling of disappointment between them after they couldn’t puzzle anything out. They could have been said, yes, that they met someone new that night, but the circumstances were far from the best and she lingered after less than 24 hours, so it seemed like a total waste of time.

Nonetheless, they were still determined. There had to be a way to get things back to normal, and it was the Paranormal detectives’ club’s job to find out.

“ _We will need magic to fix the world..._ ” Umi crooned.

**To be continued?**

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this story for Nozomi Toujou's birthday (June the 9th). If it turns out to be successful, I will considered making it into a full-fledged story, with better fights and more in-detail explanations about the Paranormal detectives' club.


End file.
